This is madness that scholars have denounced

On September 8, The third commercial flight into space was organized by British billionaire Richard Branson’s company, Virgin GalacticOn board are 3 wealthy space tourists ($450,000 per ticket). A real estate developer from Las Vegas, another who made his fortune from racing cars, and a third, Timothy Nash, the South African heir. He carries with him in a tube human fossils.

Yes, Human fossilsto know Part of the clavicle of Australopithecus sediba, 2 million years old, and the thumb bone of Homo naledi, dating back 300,000 years.. It was chosen by a scientist from South Africa, Paleontologist Lee Berger, Nash’s friend, on Twitter, was very proud to send them where “No human has ever gone extinct before,” “an astonishing journey that these ambassadors of all living human ancestors could never have dreamed of.”

” It’s pure madness »Fumes Sonia Zakrzewski is Professor of Bioarchaeology at the University of Southampton. Very quickly, like other researchers, she expressed her utter anger:

“It’s not science at all!” I’m terrified that they have license To do this, I do not understand how it is possible. What the hell did they do honestly! It is colonialism of the 21st century**y Century, rich white men, they don’t care, they think they’re better than everyone else.. its just Telecom“, not science. That’s not what archeology and anthropology are.” We try to understand people, how they appeared, and not to control, with a complete lack of morality. »

This news has caused a sensation in the scientific community around the world. Dr. Philippe Charlieraccustomed to dealing with human remains, whether fossil or not Forensic physician and director of the Laboratory of Anthropology, Archaeology and Biology in Paris-Saclay, I also jumped:

“It’s disgusting to me It’s really a tool. Fossils should be objects of study, and should be respected as human beings in their own right. Whatever its inclusion in the scale of human evolution. there already, Separating a bone from the rest of the skeleton is already in itself particularly distasteful in terms of research ethics and the respect due to the corpse. This is to completely forget that he is Of the individuals who were animatedAnd it’s not just little pieces of bone. Moreover Send her to heaven for false propaganda, The so-called promotion of scientific research, “It’s completely incomprehensible.”

But what does the law really say? Because there was already an official permit issued by the South African authorities. Explains the museum’s paleontologist, Antoine Balzou, who initially thought it was a joke when he saw the news:

“The ethics surrounding the preservation of human remains, there are no common rules, no clear ideas about it. In fact, in South Africa there are rules for access and preservation of specimens, which means that the general idea is not to endanger fossil specimens. No one could imagine that sending fossils into suborbital space would not endanger them…”**

There is an indisputable risk of losing these precious and very rare fossils… It’s about dealingincluding in the laboratory, or transportation from one site to another, there is little hassle:

“It is very complex, because the fact of manipulating it, shaping it, creating images, we can every time ask ourselves the question of our right in relation to human beings in the past who are subject to things that are not always very dignified…”

But there is a legal framework regarding human remains, and it is largely based in France “on The true ability to identify oneselfwhich obviously becomes more complicated for older human species, and is even downright impossible, however This does not prevent the researcher in his work from considering these remains as a subject of study, but it is clear that they are human remains from the past.

This major failure may have merit, and it does Highlighting the lack of international regulation. There are still many obscure areas, which some unfortunately and foolishly benefit from. who have since become distinctly less intelligent.